When Rhea Chakraborty reached Narcotics Control Bureau office on Tuesday for interrogation, she was wearing a t-shirt which made some noise on social media.
The t-shirt message read, “Roses are red, violets are blue, let’s smash the patriarchy, me and you”. After she was arrested and taken into custody for further interrogation and investigation in the drugs probe, Bollywood entertainers, most of who have been vocal against their dislike for Prime Minister Modi and the BJP, extended their support to Rhea. Everyone demanded ‘justice’ for Rhea.
#JusticeForRhea pic.twitter.com/U7AnlSkfib
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) September 8, 2020
From who’s who to who’s that of Bollywood, all rallied behind Rhea.All charges against Rhea have failed. Murder? No evidence. Abetment to murder? She wasn’t there. Stealing Rs 15 crore? Sushant never got the money. What remains is drugs. None found on her. She’s ready for a test. Who was it for? Obvious, na?#justiceforSushant #JusticeForRhea
— Pritish Nandy (@PritishNandy) September 8, 2020
#JusticeForRhea n #JusticeForSSR too.. pic.twitter.com/Y91cSYm29G
— RiA D’Souza (@RiaRevealed) September 8, 2020
Let’s take this up a notch shall we! #JusticeForRhea pic.twitter.com/dkFwMfGFZr
— 𝕓𝕦𝕞𝕓𝕒𝕚 𝕜𝕚 𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕚 (@sapnabhavnani) September 8, 2020
Those not in Twitter, took to Instagram.
As you can see, even those who have limited to zero recall value amongst the audience also came out to support Rhea.
Again a reminder: Rhea is an accused of being an active member in a drug syndicate. Some how, the allegations are overlooked because some people associated with the ruling party or supporters of Prime Minister Modi cast aspersions over Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June this year. Sushant’s family hails from Bihar where state assembly elections are scheduled for later this year. Yes, ruling party there has BJP alliance. Yes, Sushant’s family cast aspersions on Mumbai Police, where non-BJP party is in power, on the way investigation was being conducted. So clearly, the ‘liberals’ knew they’re not to side with them.
So Rhea wants to smash patriarchy. The ‘hounding’ by media and ‘trial by media’ is being done only because ‘she is a woman’ and society is afraid of ‘independent women’. But Bollywood decides to stand by her and ‘smash the patriarchy’ even though she is accused of having drugs links. Which is true. Because an individual is innocent until proven guilty and for all we know, she may just be innocent. One can only wait and see what the stand of Bollywood is if at all she is found guilty and convicted. Or maybe then the NCB will be accused of being a ruling party apparatus for going after a woman.
But we are going too ahead of ourselves. While the Bollywood has stood by Rhea they have maintained a deafening silence on Shiv Sena and NCP leaders threatening another one of their colleagues, Kangana Ranaut. None of them wanted to ‘smash the patriarchy’ when Kangana was called ‘haramkhor ladki‘ by Shiv Sena’s now chief spokesperson and MP Sanjay Raut. No one called him out when he coined a new definition of ‘haramkhor’ as ‘naughty’.
To borrow the words of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, the ruling party of Maharashtra and entire Bollywood brigade is quite naughty to put it mildly.
It so happens that Kangana supports Prime Minister Modi and quite vocally. She criticised the current Maharashtra government and the state machinery and called out Mumbai Police for ‘liking’ a tweet abusing her. Suddenly those who like to call themselves ‘brave’ for ‘speaking truth to power’ are silent. You see, ‘speaking truth to power’ is a valid argument to abuse the government only if the party in power is BJP.
Shiv Sena was a rogue party till it was with the BJP in alliance. The moment it joined hands with Congress and NCP, it got a clean slate and Uddhav Thackeray won the heart of same Bollywood who hailed him as best ever chief minister. This when even today Maharashtra contributes highest ever daily coronavirus cases. Pune is the worst affected district in entire India with highest coronavirus positive cases – which surpassed even Delhi. But somehow, no one likes to speak truth to this power.
And one woman who did and got abused in return, no ‘smash the patriarchy’ for you.
And this is just Bollywood. One can’t even recall the number of times Union Minister Smriti Irani has had to face abuse from people including politicians from opposition parties. Or when Samajwadi Party’s Azam Khan recited a sexist ‘poetry’ in the Lok Sabha to BJP MP Rama Devi. Or when troll abused Phogat sisters. No ‘smash the patriarchy’ for them either.
And these are celebrities. Women from the non-Left face abuses all the time. Remember when Congress and Islamists teamed up with PETA to attack columnist Shefali Vaidya? Nope. Shefali doesn’t get the support from ‘liberals’.
And it is okay if you are critical of the ruling party, at least be honest about it. That your ‘solidarity’ and your ‘feminism’ comes with terms and conditions and has riders attached. Don’t pretend to be a liberal when you are just as hypocrite as the ones you accuse others of being.
